Boozer admitted drink drive in Mansfield

Court Reporter

A boozer admitted being over the limit when he was stopped by police on a Mansfield street even though his car was parked ten minutes’ walk away, a court heard.

Police suspected Richard Coope of being over the limit, after an incident on Woodhouse Avenue, on July 28, and asked him how he arrived in the area, and he told them he had driven to Mansfield in his partner’s mini Cooper.

A breath test revealed he had 66 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Coope, 51, of Chestnut Grove, Nottingham, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared before magistrates in Mansfield, on Monday.

The court heard he had previous convictions, including a drink driving conviction, from 2001, and in 2002 he appeared for driving without insurance and while disqualified.

Emma Cornell, mitigating, said: “Mr Coope was fully cooperative. He tells me that this reading was from drinking the night before.”

She said he was on benefits because of long term health problems and he had “intermittent issues with alcohol” in the past.

He was banned from driving for three years, but he was offered a drink drive rehabilitation course, which will reduce his disqualification by 274 days, if completed before September 2019.

He was fined £120 and he was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.